There are many views about the origin of humans. It has been speculated that the primitive man lived in tropical weather conditions. Let us suppose that the early humans thrived in weather conditions that were temperate enough to keep them survive without need for any special kind of clothing.

Since the act of wearing started quite before recorded history, so it would be quite difficult to opine as to when exactly did start the act of wearing clothes in humans.

Safety as the primary cause of cloth wearing

One obvious cause may be that the humans might have felt wearing something while they began exploring areas where there would be cold. So in order to protect their body they might have worn body coverings.

Humans dwelling in freezing zones of the earth would definitely have switched to animal skin for it wards off the extremities of cold. In addition to fighting extremes of weather, this kind of animal skin also provided shield against wildlife as there are certain animal leather skins that can protect human body from bites of wild being such as insects and ferocious animals.

Other than covering the body, comes the issue of feet protection. The exact time and site of realization for this kind of awareness is not known. May be it had occurred at different places simultaneous but independently. All these evidences show that safety was the forerunning motivation as to why people had started wearing any thing.

Increasing civilization — another cause

With the passage of time as the human society grew cultured and civilized, nudity became a social taboo and religious creed demanded modesty in human actions characterized by the act of covering one’s private parts.

With the advent of monarchical rule on the surface of earth, a distinguished pattern of clothing was required to make attire for the kings. Before the Egyptian pharaohs would emerge, the outlook of rulers had assumed a glaring distinction. The posterity thereafter followed the rule to-date.

Following from the Greek and ancient Rome generation after generations to the European empires, human attire began to be a source of representing power status of a being as in armed forces dress.

Today, clothes may signify power and influence. Judicial person, clergy and military officers wear distinct dresses that are unique to their cadre and institution in the hierarchy. This proves one of the grounds, denoting why people started wearing clothes, is to elicit one’s social, political, religious or any status.

On the whole we can conclude that throughout human history the predominant cause associated with the human motivation for wearing clothing was to facilitate a person to perform a specialized activity. Those who were supposed to work in snowy areas had to cover their bodies heavily to avoid snow bites. With the inception of cultural wars, there emerged a wide-scale need for safety / protective shields against the arsenal attack.